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Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Did I make a few wrong choices?

I bet this is one question that most of us have asked
ourselves. Some more often than the others. This question, especially pops up
when we are going through a life crisis of varying degree.

“What if I had not quit that job in the leading software
company?”

After specialising in technology PR for a few years, I got a
break at one of India’s leading IT outsourcing and consulting firms. I quit quite
suddenly because of a particularly nasty manager. The job itself was very cushy
with flexi-timing, young team, great technology infrastructure, you name it.
But you know what they say, “you don’t leave companies, you leave bad managers”.
I left it to get back into “agency life”.

If I had not left it I would have not been working with a
global communications agency that was setting up in India. I would not have
gained international exposure. I would not have got a chance to work with
colleagues of different nationalities or travel to other countries. I would not
have got an opportunity to set up an office in a new city and build a business
from scratch. I would not have met bosses and colleagues that set high
standards of what is a great place to work. I would not have been nominated for
one of PR’s most prestigious awards.

I would have also not have been laid off due to recession
that hit the US and had ramifications in India.

So I could think of the one bad thing that ruined it all or
a million great ones that really enriched me as a human being.

We tend to put a lot of focus on our jobs and careers as
mark of success. To me success is having great friendships that you will
cherish for life. Success is having a loving wife and a beautiful son. Success
is having time for your family and being able to live a life where you have
happy smiling faces all around you.

Of course, all this could have also happened if I had not
left that “cushy job”. A lot would have changed as well. For example, I might
have not met my wife if I might have made a different choice. I wouldn’t have
left India for Dubai. My son wouldn’t have been born.

We can think of a thousand such examples of where we went wrong. But everything that resulted out of that decision could not have been bad. In fact, there would be some incredible things that happens later as a result.